Where Are They Now: Sue Chitwood

Douglas Jordan

Tuesday

Dec 25, 2012 at 10:20 PM

In this annual year-end series, The St. Augustine Record checks in on people who were in the news this past year and reports where they are now.

In the news: Sue Chitwood is the homeowner in St. Augustine Shores who led the charge against the development's fire mitigation plan, which had resulted in many trees being clear-cut from several locations throughout the community. The original plan had been coordinated by the Florida Forest Service but was handled by a subcontractor, who removed more trees than he was supposed to. That resulted in several heated meetings of the Shores Association attended by hundreds of outraged residents.

After Chitwood contacted Ryan Mauch of the St. Johns County Environmental Division, he ordered the tree cutting stopped on Sept. 10. Under pressure from the community, board president Jerry Zinn then formed a committee made up of residents, many of whom were in vehement opposition to the botched fire mitigation plan, to work together with the board to come up with a new plan.

Chitwood was appointed to that committee, tasked with addressing several remedies, including erosion control, seeding exposed soils, replanting trees and removing remaining debris piles.

What she's doing now: Chitwood, who is still working toward remedying the damage from the plan, is also planning to run for a seat on the community's board of directors in 2013. She said all of the cleared parcels have been mulched and that new growth is coming up. The committee continues to have monthly meetings and has accomplished the objectives it was given, she said. A group of residents will be planting seedlings Jan. 19, the day after Arbor day.

She says: "The parcels where the trees were removed now look so much better than they did after it first happened. Our next mission will be to look at future fire mitigation here in the Shores. We'll probably start looking at that in February. We still have a core group that's very interested in making a change on the board. I'm going to be running for a seat, as will another one of our committee members."

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